On her current health after the sidelining lung blood clots:
“I feel good! In a way, I think it was a blessing in disguise. A lot of wrestlers will say that after an injury – Not during, of course! During, it is not so fun. But, after you come back, it is like, “Ok, I’m a little recuperated from some nagging injuries here and there. Finally got some time to rest even though we didn’t want to rest”. I definitely came back with a bang. After that, I’m feeling pretty good!”

On the extent of her health scare:
“At the January tapings for Impact, maybe towards the end of the tapings, I was experiencing what I thought was maybe a dislocated rib. I was having really sharp pains and it got to the point where I could barely take a full inhale. So, I ended up going to the hospital. They told me I had blood clots in my lungs. Long story short, they believe it is due to a medication I was taking. Obviously, I’m not taking that medication anymore! (laughs) That is what they believed it was caused by. I had to take a full 6 month recovery of taking blood thinners and that is why I was not able to wrestle. Plysically, I was able to start working out again a month or two after that. But, because I was on blood thinners, I couldn’t take the risk of getting in the ring and getting hit in the head or something because the risk of internal bleeding was the most dangerous.”

On working with a familiar opponent, Mia Yim, at the WWE Mae Young Classic:
“It was all meant to be. A lot of people that follow our careers know that Mia and I are long-time frienemies. We talk about our Frienemy World Tour because we literally have wrestled across the world. It started in Cleveland with her breaking my nose in our first match ever and we’ve wrestled all the way over in China. We also wrestled in Impact for the Impact (Knockouts) Championship. The first Slammiversary I was a part of, I wrestled her (Yim) and Gail Kim and that is where I won the Knockouts Championship for the first time. To have that all wrapped up and have that all lead to a WWE ring, it really is interesting how that worked out. Especially with that (Mae Young Classic) being my first match back after 7 or 8 months out of the ring, I was happy to be in the ring with someone that I was a little more familiar with. I think that definitely worked to my advantage. But also, it worked against me because I lost. (laughs)”

On finally working on the WWE stage:
“It was definitely cool and it was also comforting in a way because the NXT venue honestly looked a lot like Impact. It looked like a sound stage. I didn’t feel like I was out of my element. It was nerve wracking at first, of course, but once I looked out at the crowd, it was like this is Impact’s set up except backwards. Like, the hard cam is on the opposite side than it was at Impact. But, it actually gave me comfort. It was like, “Ok, I’ve done this before. I’ve been in front of this venue and this crowd. This isn’t somewhere that I haven’t been.””

On working through legit injuries during a match:
“Well, in the case of Mia and I, it was a case of I was supposed to duck and I didn’t. (laughs) I didn’t duck fast enough and I didn’t duck far enough and I just, in a way, head-butted her shin. My nose basically exploded. It was broken in three places. However, I wasn’t knocked out. I was able to finish that match. That was at the beginning of our match. I could not leave at that point. I felt that would have been so humiliating! (laughs) Fortunately, I’ve never been knocked out in the ring, knock on wood. Or knocked out at all for that matter, that I’m aware of. I’ve seen stars before but that’s about it.”

On the recent Brie Bella/Liv Morgan incident:
“What happened with Brie Bella, I mean, accidents happen. Obviously, that was one of them with me and Mia where she kicked me in the nose. You just have to recover from it. I don’t know what happened in that case (Bella/Morgan). I mean, I saw the clip. I don’t know, it looked like maybe Liv ducked a little too low and Brie didn’t know she connected with her face and threw another one. Obviously, she (Bella) wanted to get her (Morgan) out of the ring. I do remember thinking, “Don’t pick her up! You know? SHe’s like knocked out! Do not grab her by the head and try and pick her up!” You have to put her in a hold, get your thoughts together, and figure out what you’re going to do next. I’m sure she was thinking, “I need to get her out.” I don’t know what the ref was telling her. The ref could have been telling her to get her out. But, if somebody is knocked out, you don’t want to try and pick them up! (laughs) Especially not by the head. But, you also don’t know how you’re going to react in a situation where something like that happens. You think you do but you don’t because that is something that is instinctual. You don’t know what is going to happen. Even when people are like, “Oh, if that happens, I’m going to fight.” You know, fight or flight? But, you don’t know if you’re going to fight or flee if you’re in that situation. Accidents do happen in our business a lot. You just have to know how to recover from them.”

On starting out with Impact Wrestling against Gail Kim:
“I don’t want to say I was overwelmed but I was very excited to do that. I felt very flattered. I mean, what’s the expression? It took me however many years to become an overnight sensation? (laughs) As far as Impact, I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew I had a lot of people vouching for me. Dave Lagana was a writer there at the time and he really liked my work. He’s really the reason I got my tryout there. Gail Kim really did have a lot to do with the reason I got hired there after I did that Knockouts pay per view (Knockouts Knockdown 2016: One Night Only) where I wrestled her. She essentially was feeling me out in the match and determining if I should be there or not. I don’t think things are done like that anymore but it was at the time and I think it should be. It meant something, you know? I wasn’t going down there expecting a push or expecting really anything. In this business, don’t get your hopes up because things happen for seemingly no reason. There are a lot of talented people out there who don’t get what they deserve for really no reason and then there are people who, you know, the opposite. So, it was really flattering when I realized that, one, I was wrestling Gail Kim. And two, they put me in a storyline even then. That should have told me that they were probably going to sign me. But, even when they invited me to the next set of tapings, I wasn’t thinking that they were going to sign me. I was just like, “Well, I’m going to have fun and lets see where this goes!””

On her critically acclaimed matches with Rosemary:
“Thank you! Those were actually my favorite matches that I had in Impact. That first one with Gail being one of them and then the match with Rosemary at Slammiversary to unify the Knockouts and GFW Women’s Championship, and then the Last Knockout Standing match on Impact. It is had for me to pick which of those 2 is my favorite but I’d have to go with the Last Knockout Standing.”

On the backstage changes and atmosphere while at Impact:
“I definitely saw a lot of changes! There were a lot of changes happening when I got there in 2016. I guess it was just normal to me because I didn’t know anything different. People that have been there forever like Gail (Kim) and Abyss, they’ve seen it all. They’ve been there from the beginning, pretty much, so for them, it was probably drastic. For me, I walked in the middle of things changing. It felt like every other taping, things were changing, certain people were worried about things, whatever. But, I was just like going along for the ride, you know? I was just like, “This is where my contract is. I just want to have fun. I want to do things that other programs aren’t doing right now.” Basically, I just wanted the mic! (laughs) Give me the mic, let me roll with it, and it will be good!”

On her “cousin” KM:
“Oh Cuz! Oh Cuz! Funny story, when he first got there, and this is an example of those changes, like, I sort of had a stable there where it was me, KM, Kongo Kong, and Chelsea (Laurel Van Ness) and it was never really explained why or who… I think it was when Maria (Kanellis) was leaving. So, things got swapped around. It is funny though because when I first met KM, I never met him before… He is so loud! (laughs) I remember thinking, “Oh my God! This guy is so loud. He’s so in my face!” I thought I was being tolerant like, “Hi, nice to meet you”, whatever. But, kind of trying to keep my distance? But, later, like a year later, and we’re cool now, he told me, “When I first met you, I thought you were such a bitch!” (laughs) He said, “You didn’t seem like you really wanted me out there”. I was like, “I didn’t! I really didn’t want you there! I didn’t know you and it was a random pairing!” But, it is funny because he grew on me. He is still really loud! But, he’s funny too. I like him.”

On her seemingly abrupt departure from Impact while injured:
“I did leave Impact on good terms. I did give them notice when I knew I was going to be doing the (WWE) Mae Young Classic. My contract had expired. It expired in April and this is like June or July that we’re talking. To be honest, I don’t know if they knew my contract had expired. A lot of people who signed when I did signed two year deals. I negotiated mine down to a one year deal. There were so many management changes, I don’t know if they even knew that mine was not a two year deal without me bringing it up. A lot of people, when their contracts are expiring, bring it up. When it was expiring, I was injured. I didn’t know what I was doing so I kind of rode it out. I was like, “Let me determine if I can even wrestle anymore.” That was a huge thing. I had to do a lot of testing to determine if I could even wrestle again or are they going to tell me that this is a genetic disorder and I’ll have to be on blood thinners for life. That was a possibility. So, I wasn’t worried about contracts at the time. I was worried about, “Am I ever going to be able to wrestle again?” When I got that worked out and I was about to be cleared, WWE reached out to me. My contract with Impact was expired and they hadn’t really reached out to me with any ideas. So, I decided I’m going to take what I can and take this crazy journey as far as I can. This is a new thing. It is exciting. I wanted to try something new.”

On WWE pulling the trigger on an all women’s PPV:
“I think it is cool that there is an all women’s pay per view. A lot of people get caught up on who did it first. SHIMMER has been around since 2005. Impact has been doing Knockouts only pay per views for however many years. I feel that the more women’s wrestling, the better!”

On not wanting women’s wrestling to be a fad:
“I stand by what I said before. I feel that especially when WWE started putting women in the main event, all these indy promotions, suddenly they have a Women’s Championship when they never did before. Suddenly they are like, “Women are in the main event too on our show!” Ok, you guys don’t really care because you’re just jumping on something that is trendy right now because a more popular company is doing it. Sometimes it does feel really hokey when companies are doing it that never did it before. But, I feel us getting a bigger platform is a good thing.”

On if she’ll sign a contract with a big company:
“Honestly, I have no idea. I’m talking to a few people… I just want to have fun! I don’t want to just be a body that’s just there. “Look, I’m in this company. Here I am!” And that’s it. I’m a creator. I need to create. I don’t want creative control. I can work with ideas! But, I want stories. I want compelling stories. I want to do something different. I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing. I don’t want to be a robot! (laughs)”